Sanjay Mathur, professor of inorganic and materials chemistry, saw these needs among young researchers in his research group at the University of Cologne, Germany. He supervises about 40 undergraduate and graduate students, aided by several postdoctoral researchers, and was pondering how to involve young investigators like his students in a meaningful way. He also was organizing chair of the ICACC in 2012 and hatched the idea to organize a forum at the conference to showcase the research efforts of graduate students.

Mathur tapped one of his senior Ph.D. candidates—Thomas Fischer—to organize the first Global Young Investigators Forum (GYIF), which took place at that 2012 meeting. Last year ICACC organizers raised the visibility of the GYIF even more by initiating a GYIF award lecture. The first winner was Eva Hemmer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Canada.

Fischer, who is will defend his Ph.D. thesis soon, is organizing the fourth GYIF, which will take place in January 2015 with the 39th ICACC.

Fischer says the forum is especially beneficial for young scientists, “Normally at conferences you have established scientists and huge sessions, and it’s a little bit of a barrier. We wanted to lower this barrier by having a session on our own, but one where the established scientists also take part.” A second goal, he says, is to create “a venue where young people can meet and try to find their own networks.”

Along those lines, ACerS organizes events at ICACC through its Young Professionals Network that make it easy and fun for young members to meet, network, and launch that career.